The GnATTERbox

For discussion of the issues faced when building a model or layout - how to replicate wood, what glues to use, exactly how much weathering can a Gnat take, a good source of detailing accessories - you get the picture, I'm sure.

Having built 'Lady Frideswide' and 'Sir Macintosh', and found that neither will run on my Berger Hall layout because of the 6" curves, I've been giving some desultry consideration to building a 'display diorama' to stand them on, and maybe even photograph them. The idea developed a little into something that might, at some unspecified time in the future, be extended into a layout, but first things first ...

I bought a couple of small Celotex 50mm insulation boards and a piece of 3mm hardboard, and have just started construction of the base, in the same way that Berger Hall's was made - "You know my methods, Watson" ...

The insulation and hardboard cut into 2' x 18" pieces, ready to be stuck together. Inevitably, I ran out of the No More Nails Project adhesive, so progress is stalled until I source some more ...

It had become clear, well to me at least, that your b****y smelly engines that now won't go around you corners, need to replaced by modern, economical infernal combustion locomotives with nice petite wheelbases or even better mounted on a pair of bogies. Retire those boilers to heat the big house.

Many thanks for your comments chaps, I hadn't thought a piccy of two bits of insulation and a bit or hardboard would attract much comment!

In the current hiatus attention has also been devoted to a suitable back-story to accompany the diorama/display/layout while construction is (slowly) underway.

The setting is still Berger Hall, but in 2019 – hence the ‘Update’ in the title of this thread. The title so expensively bought/hard worked-for by Sebastian Berger became extinct, as his grandson had only daughters. Berger Hall and the estate came into the hands of the cadet branch – the Berger-Kings – at that time, and the latest owner is Stackpole Berger-King – known as Stackers to his friends.

When Stackers was a child he spent school holidays with his grandfather at the Hall, and discovered the remains of Sir Macintosh’s railway, mouldering away in the overgrown shrubbery. When he inherited the estate in due course he decided to resurrect the line as a tourist attraction, to generate some income for the upkeep of the Hall. He was lucky enough to know some railway enthusiasts, who helped him lay out a new route and find locos and rolling stock. Funds were raised for the construction of an out-and-back line with a loop at the far end, and a new, three-road loco shed adjacent to the old stable yard.

The locos and rolling stock that Sir Macintosh had had built were sold off after WW2, but were stored in anticipation of a projected park railway, which never came to fruition. Stackers and his friends were able to buy the locos and get them overhauled and running again – they had been stored in some old industrial buildings, awaiting the outcome of a long legal dispute, so had survived in reasonable shape.

Bother!! I’m now regreting that I haven’t already published the back story for the Cordale Hall Railway. There are a few similarities! But I suppose there are only a limited number of ways to explain the reviving of an old estate railway in the present day or thereabouts.

Sorry about that, Paul! I guess that the story has been quite common for titles and estates, especially since WW2. Quite a few estate owners have built a railway to attract tourists - I live close to Blenheim Palace, which has a little railway between the Palace and Pleasure Gardens - I walk past it most mornings, on my way to get the paper ...

I've been following Cordale Hall with interest - good use of the Henry Ford kit of figures! The young ladies definitely Would Not Have Done for Berger Hall, but might find a place on the new iteration. I think I've seen them offered on t'Bay ...

If you are so close to Blenhiem Palace, that explains how you got the picture of the lake for the backscene at Temple Halt. I thought that was a very skillful piece of modelling. The left, right and centre all fitted together most convincingly and it all blended with the foreground so well.

I realised a while ago that we had a different philosophy on what counts as a ‘proper’ lady on our model railways. The ladies on my layout came from the Master Box range. I sourced them from Creative Models:

Right, I now have the adhesive - Gorilla Grab, which sets underwater apparently (but it's not compulsory) ...

So, a couple of slightly more exciting images than in my first post ...

... the diorama/photoboard/layout in its basic state. And ...

... a close-up of the sandwich - 3mm hardboard on the bottom, two layers of Celotex, black foamboard on top. The glue seems to have done what it says on the tin, so I can now start construction (if that's not too grand a term). The original intent to have a 3-road loco shed might have to be scaled back a bit, as reality clashes with my grand plans ...

Some progress - the Peco point arrived from Track Shack yesterday - ordered on 17th, arrived on 19th, great service - so I got down to some serious track laying ...

... which I finished this afternoon. I let a wooden strip into the foam board and insulation board to take pins to hold the end of the tracks that will connect with whatever comes next - traverser/sector plate/extension ...

I glue the track down with Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue - a fairly thick layer down the intended track line to the width of the sleepers, then weighted down until the glue's dry. I find that the Scenic Glue is a great general purpose adhesive - dries fast, clear and matt, and I use it for all sorts of jobs. It's very good for making foam-board shells of buildings - which is something I shall be doing for the loco shed very soon. One change to the original plan is that the shed will be of the steel framed and clad in box-section steel sheeting type. Guess who found two sheets of 1:24 scale box-section polystyrene sheeting in the back of the garage ...

As I had failed to take the pitch of the cladding into account when making the shell, the large piece over the doorway didn't fit neatly. I fixed on the two vertical pieces at the sides of the door first, then placed a large piece symetrically disposed between them, and filled in the gaps with carefully (!) trimmed pieces. The green lines are where I had to fill in the resultant poor joins ...

There are, of course, gaps in the junctions between the front and sides, and the front and roof, but these are prototypical (if not so neat) and, as with the prototype, are being covered by L-section strip - it's drying as I write, and pics will appear in due course ...

The sticking, in the case of the box-sections, is done with this ...

It's a bit smelly, but does the job. The grab isn't instant, and the smaller roofing section slipped a fraction as I put the weight on to keep it flat as the glue dried. The glue does soften the styrene if too much gets inside the box-section. The box-section sheets are vacuum-formed, and hard to cut neatly - I found that very sharp scissors were the best cutters ...

The loco shed is being painted (with all the inevitable trauma that incurs) so other jobs are getting done ...

The back board has been bent into shape to fit around the scene ...

... and the wiring to track feeds and isolating sections has been done. Don't try to follow the loose ends of the wires - they are all over the place until I fix them in the grooves in the foamboard. I intend that there will be a control panel at left rear, accessible from the back, the necessary switches and connectors are 'in the post', some from China ...

It didn't turn out too badly - not quite as dark green as I hoped but it'll do. It's the sort of colour that an estate owner would choose to tone down the shed so it didn't look too stark against the old buildings ...

The roller shutter is made from some 7mm scale corrugated iron sheet from York Models that's been in my bits box for years ...

... the back-board has been painted and fixed to the baseboard, the back-board inside the loco shed has been painted black, the sides of the rails have been painted brown, and 'the control panel' has been fabricated ...

I sent off for some neat little square push-switches for the isolating sections. They came from China - all 20 of them. Another item from t'Bay costing peanuts ...